Best Free CD-DVD Burning Software

When looking for the best free software program for either CD (Compact Disc) or DVD (Digitally Versatile Disc) I think it is worth the effort to consider your exact requirements.

Keep in mind that CD & DVD burning programs are designed for you to author CDs and DVDs for: music, photos, movies, games, data, or other digital files that will hopefully stimulate your creativity. As well as CD and DVD burning software, this category also includes Lightscribe software which enables you to produce laser-etched labels with text or graphics, as opposed to stick-on labels and printable discs.

With new software (particularly new free software) don't be afraid to experiment and try a few different options before you decide on the right one for you.

Discussion

ImgBurn is the product I decided is the most powerful free burning tool, as no other software comes close to its advanced features and options.

ImgBurn includes support for:

every modern optical disc from CD to Blu-Ray

more than 10 image formats

authoring rewritable discs

producing images from file compilations or discs

building audio CDs from a variety of file types

creating video discs on DVD, Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD

enabling access to drives for restricted users

endless tweaking of all aspects of the burn process.

ImgBurn has several 'Modes', each one for performing a different task:

Read - Read a disc to an image file.
Build - Create an image file from files on your computer or network or you can write the files directly to a disc
Write - Write an image file to a disc
Verify - Check a disc is 100% readable. Optionally, you can also have ImgBurn compare it against a given image file to ensure the actual data is correct
Discovery - Put your drive/media to the test! Used in combination with DVDInfoPro, you can check the quality of the burns your drive is producing.

ImgBurn's advanced features may confuse you if you just want to do a basic burn. The welcome menu provides quick access to some common tasks, but other basic features such as erasing a re-writable disc are not immediately visible. Try playing around with ImgBurn for a while. Exploring the menus will certainly reveal most of what you need. However, if you simply aren’t interested in advanced functionality you may wish to check out my other recommendations. Although ImgBurn is primarily aimed at advanced users, I still feel that it deserves top spot in this category. Caution: ImgBurn is now bundled with the OpenCandy wrapped installer.

BurnAware Free is probably the prettiest in the interface department for this collection and offers a step-by-step procedure for your burning projects. It is now probably one of the most popular free CD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc burning software available for Windows. Using BurnAware Free Edition you can easily create and burn Audio and MP3 CD, Data and DVD-Video disc, ISO and Cue Image, erase or format rewritable disc, copy your CD or DVD to ISO image. This software is for personal home use only.

A launch window lets you choose the type of project you want and leads you through the process to completion. Navigating your directories is easy with BurnAware's file management system and adding files is as simple as highlighting them and hitting a button. BurnAware offers enough features for most burning projects including burn data, bootable and multi-session discs, burn audio, video and MP3 discs, create and burn ISO/CUE/BIN images, copy discs to ISO images and erase rewritable discs. Sometimes you just need a simple program for your burning needs and don't need all the extra features of a paid application. Caution:BurnAware Free is now bundled with the OpenCandy installer. See this information page for details.

Supports:

All media types (CD/DVD/Blu-ray Disc) including Double Layer

All current hardware interfaces (IDE/SCSI/USB/1394/SATA) including AHCI

I like CDBurnerXP's clean user interface. The four-paned interface makes it easy to find what you are looking for. You can then drop-and-drag files to your chosen media. Also, the audio player, which is included, helps you ensure you have captured the tracks you want. You may find the dropbox window handy as it allows you to browse your files using Windows Explorer and then quickly drop-and-drag files to your burn list as you go. Judging from other user reviews, some people had trouble with CDBurnerXP when burning data DVDs although I did find I was able to use this function without too many hassles.

Once again, CDBurnerXP supports common types of optical discs like CD, DVD, and Blue-Ray including double layer mediums. You will find creating Audio CDs, Video Discs, DVD or Blue-Ray, very easy. I found dealing with re-writable media is also very comfortable with this program. ISO files can be created and burned as well with support of converting BIN/NRG file formats into ISO.

CDBurnerXP is multilingual and natively supports 32 and 64 bits version of Windows 7.

Editor's Advisory Note: CDBurnerXP is now bundled with OpenCandy. See this article for more information.

I consider a review of free burning software must include InfraRecorder so I am listing it as my fourth choice. InfraRecorder is a stable project that has been popular for quite a long time. It supports all of the common features that a good burning application should have, and it works with all types of CDs and DVDs including dual layer discs. It even includes full command line support like CDBurnerXP. With InfraRecorder, you can burn and create images with support for bootable discs, author rewritable discs, and create audio CDs and video DVDs. The interface is clean and simple without a lot of extras to make things confused.

InfraRecorder is a respectable burning program, but it has a few disadvantages as well. It does not support Blu-Ray discs or HD-DVDs. It also does not include many advanced options for tweaking the burn process to perfection like ImgBurn. Its interface isn’t as nice as that of BurnAware Free, and it doesn’t have any extra features like CDBurnerXP. Aside from these possible downsides, it feels like a solid program that definitely deserves a chance at becoming a part of your favored software collection.

Portable version available:
A portable version of this product is available from the developer.

System requirements:
Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista/7

Additional information:

Caution: Now bundled with OpenCandy - see note above. An OpenCandy free version is available by clicking the "More download options" link on the downloads page.
Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft Windows Media Format 9.0 Update are required

As per the extensive details given for this program in the review, and as with a lot of other software, it contains bundled components, but these are easy enough to avoid if care is taken during the install process. More information at the link below. MC - Site Manager.

BurnAware Free 7.1 is now bundled with OpenCandy. In their site's published EULA for BurnAware Free there's no mention of any OpenCandy license but in the installer's EULA OpenCandy's License is now included. Also, Malwarebytes did detect the presence of OpenCandy.

I recently had to get a new computer, which has caused the usual nightmares of installing, re-installing, re-registering, and learning some new programs from scratch.

"ImgBurn" was installed. You know, after many years of working with computer programs, you get to know good design from BAD design. Frankly, "ImgBurn" is the worst piece of S*** I've ever run across-- and I've been using "3D Studio Viz" for ages! For the life of me, I could not figure out how to use it, and it was driving me up a wall.

Similarly, the new version of "Windows Media Player" is EVEN WORSE than the earlier ones. That, ALLEGEDLY, is supposed to allow you to burn CDs-- but after many years, I have still not been able to figure out how. (That's not an exaggeration.)

I wanted to thank you for the list of recommended programs. I was looking for something SIMPLE. I downloaded "CDBurnerXP", and figured it out RIGHT, first time, easily. I might never have found it without your help. I give this MY highest recommendation.

I really don't get the problem with ImgBurn, especially why it should prompt such vitriolic feelings. I find it a breeze to use and it's easy to create a non-install version to avoid any bundling, or just download the PAF version.

I'm with you on Media Player though, I've never liked it and would disable it completely if it wasn't needed as the engine for a couple of third-party programs I use. Media Player Classic is excellent though.

I agree about CDBurnerXP too, it is very very good. Ususally my first choice for anything other than simple tasks with disk images. The integrated audio previewer is a nice touch.

I recently tried out the latest 2 versions of these free burning softwares and wanted to share my results.

I'd been using BurnAware Free 7.5, reliably burning data discs at 10x for a while and loved using the quick-verify feature it has to data-check after compilation burn completion. However the latest version has an issue with it.

I checked out CDBurnerXP 4.5.4.5143 to see if it could do faster burns. After my testing I can burn reliably much faster at 16x. I also like that it has a direct folder tree available and you don't need to have a separate Windows Explorer window open like for BurnAware Free.

Outcome:
I recommend people try out the latest version of CDBurnerXP as I've had great results. :D

BurnAware Free.
I have used this and the interface is very good. Once MAJOR problem found. I had a faulty bluray burner. It was only after 40 odd discs that I needed to retrieve something. I then found all burns had failed.
Despite this program verifing that all was good.
I had used ImgBurn as well, and it failed to verify. I had dismissed this as the software hadn't had an update in 2years. My mistake.
Be very carefull with BurnAware Free !!!!

Be careful next time, do a web search before installing anything and read other users' opinions about the legitimacy of the piece of software you are trying to install (do not download it blindly from DOWNLOAD.CNET because your PC will be automatically infected) and ways of circumventing potential issues.

I think out of 10,000 people, only one might turn out to need one of the advanced edit features that ImgBurn has to offer. Although I appreciate it being standalone (not dependent on .NET Framework) and light / fast (the simpler, more responsive interface), I think the drawback that the interface isn't that intuitive, in fact even cumbersome, and that it leaves room for errors from users that are not that technical (the other 9,999 people...) is what matters more. So, I and most people would use CDBurnerXP (or BurnAware Free), which beat even many commercial software I've seen in terms of usability, stability, and so on, and even come (very?) close to the reliability / stability of ImgBurn.

And don't forget, everyone, it is better to burn discs at lower speeds (I would recommend half the speed advertised on the disc), especially with discs of whose quality you are unsure of. The more the sensitivity of the data (the more you care about it), the slower the speed you should choose.